


Like Real People Do

by k_h0le



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, High School AU, M/M, Rey is a Kenobi Universe, Slow Burn, becomesadopted!rey, idkwtf this is honestly, orphan!Rey, sent to war AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-07-18 00:50:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7292824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k_h0le/pseuds/k_h0le
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey Kenobi has been found.<br/>It is a time of war, generations old within the Galaxy. The Imperial Services are a tyrannical elite militant operation that has been slowly taking control of people and planets, conforming them or killing them. The Resistance Forces have been fighting the Imperials for peace for as long as most civilians can recall; a militia composed of those of the old world, and those with old world intentions and skills. While The Resistance has been fighting the Imperial Services' control for years, they retain only a few planets but are now finally working to reach agreement with the I.S. concerning the planets remaining.<br/>After a raid conducted by The Imperial Services on Jakku leaves her wounded, lone orphan Rey is discovered and realized to be the last of the Kenobi bloodline. Her grandfather Ben Kenobi, high ranking officer to the Resistance Forces brings her to live with him on Coruscant.<br/>Rey now has to adapt to the wildly different life she's unknowingly stumbled into. And with that she realizes that struggling for life on Jakku might be easier than struggling to remain herself on Coruscant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Before Those Hands Pulled Me From the Earth

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Guys! This is my first fic in a very very long time so if anyone reads it please be gentle! Feedback is greatly appreciated!  
> I honestly don't know what this fic is, it started as one thing and is constantly turning into something else. All text in [] will be flashbacks, just FYI. Just be aware: it'll get dirty, it's gon be a slllooooowww burn, and I am trying my hardest to make this decent. Much love to all and may the force be with yall, bitches!  
> Now, to the part you came here for...

When Rey woke up she was overheated, sweaty wrapped up in the myriad of blankets and sheets on her bed. She stared blankly at the ceiling of her room and took a deep breath in. The heat was different than that of Jakku.  
She still awoke with sweat beading her forehead but here, in her new life, it wasn't mingled with rough sand and dirt. She was still wrapped in silence like she would've been on the hot desert planet, but she knew that in her new life, the silence was temporary. She was already waiting for her alarm to sound, alerting her that she needed to start her day.  
Somehow, her body _still_ reverted back to thinking it belonged on Jakku when she let herself slip into unconsciousness, just to wake up in her bed ( _hers._ ) every morning. Soft sheets under her skin and bunched around her wildly from vivid nightmares of endless dunes and abandonment.

Since coming to live on Coruscant almost six moon cycles ago (and she thinks, that's been six months away from her makeshift wreckage home in the desert, six months away from the boiling sun being her only constant companion, _six months_ , and she can't help but feel a pang of regret at leaving, giving up her endless wait and her solitude) she'd made some friends, gotten used to sleeping in a bed, in a house, _safe_. She'd learned more and seen more than she ever imagined possible, but most importantly she'd connected with what small sliver of _family_ she had in the entire galaxy, a grandfather. He was a man of few words at first and Rey understood his cautions. From what she'd learned, behind the backs of those around her, from asking all the elders she knew to tell her stories of her family, of the past wars and how life came to be as it was; her grandfather'd lived a sorrowful past, the love of his life, her grandmother, dying in his arms. Their daughter Bo, her _mother_ , defiant and remarkable just like her mother before her, running off to join a group of those resistant to the tyranny of the Imperial government to fight for peace, never to return. Leaving Rey alone, no mother or father to raise her, love her, teach her.  
(And Rey wonders if maybe that is just the fate of the Kenobi family, for the daughters to lose their mothers. Maybe the fate of the Kenobi family was just to be one of desertion and loneliness)  
Except, now, for her.  
She loved her grandfather instantly. He felt like _home_ , a real, tangible home. She might still feel uncomfortable in crowds on the city streets, light twinkling above her, lighting the walkways and cars and sound coming from every which way.. But in her grandfathers home, _her home_ , she felt whole. She didn't find herself constantly worrying about her survival.  
It was a nice change.

 

[The last thing she'd expected when she'd heard the clang and explosions of gunfire outside her scrap-home one hot Jukku evening so late that the dark was more overwhelming than the light, was to wake up in a crisp and clean white room. Sterile. Metallic. Devoid of humility or attitude.  
She'd woken up screaming, that much she remembers. Then, she remembered the slicing pain in her side. She instinctively reached for the area-recoiling from herself when she actually made contact with the bandages. She realized then that she was in her usual beige cloth trousers, her boots had been removed but she could see them laying close by the foot of the bed. She had her chest wrap on still, which she silently thanked the gods she didn't believe in for, but her white tunic and the flowing fabric she usually wore as robes, cinched with her sturdy leather belt were nowhere to be found. Her arm wraps were replaced by bandage after bloodied bandage, almost as covering as her arm wraps themselves. The bandage on her stomach was bloodied too, a large circumference of scarlet stained the white wraps and she felt a dull thud in the wound itself every time her heart beat.  
"Oh my," a voice came from the corner of the room and Rey realized she wasn't alone, stiffening instantly, almost preparing for an attack. "You're awake! Glad to see you..now, calm down sweetheart..it's okay.."  
The voice was that of a woman's, soft and nurturing and not was Rey was used to. She realized she was still screaming.  
"Let me get a nurse!" The woman left in a flurry of robes and clacking heels on the floor and Rey then realized she was in a MedBay.  
Without her permission her heart began to race impossibly fast as her mind whipped through to try and find what her last memory was. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down but realizing it only made the wound at her side throb more. She winced.  
"Well good morning, we were getting worried you'd be sleeping forever." This voice wasn't the woman, but that of a man, younger only slightly, but still so. He was wearing a stark white lab coat and holding a datapad, standing next to the woman with the kind voice. "You've been out for a week solid. How are you feeling?"

_A week solid._

Rey frantically searched the room for her things, her staff, her bag but all she could find was the clothing she'd already observed. The woman with the kind voice stepped forward, coming into the light that crept lazily from the windows from behind the blinds. Rey could see now that she _was_ older, hair greying and face littered with laugh lines. She smiled softly, "Rey? Rey. It's okay." The words were muffled in Rey's ears. An inaudible buzz. "You were in an ambush, you were wounded, but you're fine now. The doctors have stitched you up and you're on bacta, that will help your body heal.."  
Rey looked up at the woman towards the end of her sentence and the woman gave her a small smile.  
"Where am I?" It was scarcely a statement or a question. More of a croak from Rey's throat, stiff from lack of use.  
"You're on Coruscant." Leia spoke calmly, slowly, "You were brought here to be hospitalized. When you were injured they did blood tests, as they usually do.." The woman faltered now, unsure. She waved her hands in the air nervously. It made Rey anxious. "We found you because of those tests. We, well, I did, and I happen to know your grandfather, we're very close, I never knew you were out there but when we got results that a girl with Kenobi blood was found and hospitalized.."  
The world faded out around Rey again. The woman's voice going wonky and messy. _Grandfather_.  
Rey gasped aloud. Clawed at the bedding beneath her. The woman with the nice voice's eyes rounded, bulging and worried as she felt out to catch Rey's arm softly. She crouched to meet Rey's face, looking her right in the eyes and a wave of calm washed over her.  
"Your grandfather has brought you here to live with him", she said softly, handling Rey with kid gloves. Rey could admit she probably needed that right now.

"Who..who is my grandfather? Why did he..what. What does he want from me?"  
Rey's words were slightly gasped, still overwhelmed. "Who are _you_?? Why did..why do you care about what happens to me?" Rey felt the words garble out of her mouth ungracefully. She tried again to focus on her breathing.  
"I'm General Organa..Leia. Our families have been friends for years. Your grandfather..he has been hoping to find you for so long, Rey."  
The words are a revelation in Rey's ears. _Families. Grandfather. Find you._ ]

 

Most mornings in her new life, she awakes before her alarms. Lazing in bed until she actually has to get up to make it to her classes, (she has _classes_ to be at. People are _expecting_ her. And even if that isn't exactly people looking forward to seeing her, it means if she's lucky at least one of her new friends will be in with her).  
This morning was no different. She finally rolled out of bed and pulled on an oversized t-shirt, listening closely as she opened her door to hear her grandfather downstairs, mulling about getting his morning caffe, reading the paper, grunting at certain stories being told on the news.  
_There are all these little things that her grandfather does that are so absolutely_ Grandfatherly _she can't help but choke on the irony. He's so very normal when normal is something Rey has never, ever felt in her life. Now it's _all__ her life.  
She shuts the door, raising her arms to stretch above her head, walking towards her bathroom.  
Out of everything she'd come to have here on Coruscant, her own bathroom is top five. Since she's come to live in her grandfathers home she's discovered the glory of a nice warm bath. And her only real _girlfriend_ , Jessika, had taught her about the additional glory of bubbles and sweet, incredible smelling soaps and bath bombs. (And Rey will admit that she's a little obsessed with being able to be _clean_ , it was something she hadn't ever had the luxury of and she definitely took advantage now that she could).  
She turned the hot water tap on and threw in a handful of salts that smelled like lavender, then poured in ample bubble bath, smelling like honey. She then turned to the vanity, letting the tub fill slowly. Her hair was askew, one of her three usually neat buns fallen out completely and the other two hanging on for dear life. Pulling the elastics out and running her hands through the wild mop on her head she walked back toward the tub, turning off the water, reaching out quickly to pick up a tuft of bubbles in her palm before blowing them off and back to settle into the bath. She soaked for long enough for the water to cool, the air and her body having stolen the heat right from under her, before getting out and wrapping herself in a towel. She sits at her vanity, reachingout to wipe the condensation from the mirror, displaying her face.  
Rey had never been insecure before moving into the general population of Coruscant. She'd lived and grown up on a planet that was about surviving, period. She'd known plenty of girls though, girls who grew up in huts with their _families_. Instead of scavenging every single day just for dinner portions, they'd bring scrap to Plutt every once in a while to buy thick face powders and colorful makeup paints for their faces. Dressing up like grand queens going to a ball as if they weren't going to simply dirty their faces with sand and dust the moment they stepped outside. As if they were virtuous and regal, when Rey knew they'd also spend time on their backs to get the things they wanted, the unnecessaries. Or worse, traded their company and bodies for their daily portions, the girls who were too fragile to make it in the scrap yards that bowed their heads as they walked through the bazaar, beautiful but endlessly sad. Rey had always found pride in the fact that she'd never _stooped_ to the level of trading her body for survival, but now that she was far far away from worlds where that happened, she felt like maybe it had never happened to _her_ because she just wasn't desirable. Rey saw conventional women everyday now, at school, in ads about fashion and beauty and there was nothing Rey felt _farther from_. Rey was awkward angles and freckled sun-splotched skin. She didn't have feminine curves like Jessika and the other girls at school, she didn't have a beauty routine or fancy makeup or clothes. And not that Rey ever wanted those things before..but now she felt like less because she didn't fit into the mould. There had never been a mould on Jakku. Just surviving till the next morning.  
Even now that she was comfortable with her grandfather she didn't ever dare ask for anything, even though she knew he'd jump at any chance to make her happy. So she remained makeup-less, avoided fancy clothes, her only real treat to herself her bath salts and soaps. She grew more and more comfortable with her own skin the longer she was on Coruscant anyway.  
It was just, Rey _knew_ she wasn't anything _special_ to look at..and she hadn't tried to make herself into something she wasn't just to fit in. She'd never tried to be pretty and she wasn't going to start now just because people around her tried to.

_Her pride is one thing that has remained the same since her planetary switch._

_["Dirt Queen, coming through!"_  
A small rock soared through the air, nearly nailing her in the head as a gaggle of boys swarmed around. Some of them hiding behind wreckage deeply implanted in the ground or standing tall, yelling at her as she passed.  
Rey just focused on the ground below her feet as she walked to the trading outpost. _Out of sight, out of mind_.  
She had a decent haul today and her focus was better spent keeping watch over it than her head. Especially since Plutt had changed the value of portions last week. Usually Rey didn't worry too much over the idea of another scavenger trying to take her down and pilfer her loot, but since the change, it was every man for himself.  
Or in Rey's case, every 10 year old girl for herself.  
Another rock whizzed by, and another, one actually hitting her in her arm. She winced. The rocks were small, nothing enough to really hurt her, but like everything on Jakku they sat in the sun day after day, gathering heat, and when they came in contact they seared the flesh just so. Rey looked up abruptly, eye hawking to discover the culprits. Rand and Dietrich, hiding behind a small sheath of scrap metal half out the ground. She sneered in their direction and Rand made a stupid face at her in return. He wasn't worth her energy. She had to be as selective as possible when it came to expenditure of precious energy. So she looked back to the ground and continued her trek, the boys behind her yelling.  
- _dirty face-dirty scavenger-_

_Later at the outpost, cleaning her items next to an old woman Rey watches her bag, her hands scrubbing, and the boys still outside, playing, screaming lame insults at her and each other_  
"Boys, you know." The old woman spoke suddenly. She didn't stop her cleaning, didn't look up or really raise her voice to ensure Rey could hear, but she could.  
"They tease you because they like you."  
Rey stays silent, but looks at the woman, slowing her movements.  
"They'll make fun of you until they get a rise from ya." She chuckles under her breath, smiling slightly making the lines of her face stand out. She falls silent as well, picking up another piece of metal to scrub, returning her attention to work. So Rey does too.  
_Because they like me_ , she thought, _In what galaxy does that make sense?_  
As Rey gets older, the boys get meaner. Advancing to calling her a _worthless orphan_ , or _prude bitch"_ , or her favorite, _human scrap_.  
Rey thinks back to the old woman at the outpost. Thinks, _"They tease you because they like you"_. She thinks if it's true, she'd much rather they didn't like her.] 


	2. I Will Not Ask You, Neither Should You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya if anyone is reading. I just can't stop myself with this one honestly.  
> Thank you for the kudos, I love them.  
> Moving forward, fic..

She's walking through the hallway to her first period class ( _Biology_ ) when she runs into Jess, which is the usual. Jess comes in last minute, always pushing the bell to the last moment, so she always runs right into Rey as they enter the bio lab. Rey has to book it from the senior parking lot to get there right before the bell.  
Rey only parks in the senior lot because she was late to sign up for school. After being found on Jakku, her hospitalization, physical therapy, and countless hours of rehab had taken a toll, she didn't get to go register for classes until almost two days before the second semester started. She'd spent all her downtime between therapies working on school from home, and meeting her small group of friends through her next door-neighbor (and best friend so far). So she got the last of the last pickings of the parking spots, meaning the senior lot, which she didn't mind mostly. Except it was on the far ass end away from almost all her classes because she's technically somewhere between a freshman and a sophomore, and it was smack dab next to all the senior course classrooms. When Jessika found out Rey's parking pass was for the senior lot she'd thrown a quick, fleeting look of jealousy in Rey's direction, face growing into a scowl but as quickly as it was there it was gone, replaced by her usual easy-going smile. Rey still half a year later doesn't understand what made Jess' face grow dark the way it had for that one moment.  
"Hey Rey", Jessika beams at her in a sing song voice, rhyming. Rey gives her a smile, genuine but small, and a wave as she hurries in to sit at her assigned seat, getting out her notebook and pen and starting to work out the question on the board. She thinks she sees Jess roll her eyes lovingly in her peripheral vision as the girl sits down across the aisle from Rey. Jessika doesn't start working on the problem, just turns in her seat and starts a conversation with Tenia, a girl from Nabboo who was one of the more popular girls in Rey's year. Tenia was sweet, a little talkative for Rey's taste, but she guessed that if she was as beautiful as Tenia and got the kind of attention Tenia got, she'd probably be more talkative too. Girls like Jess and Tenia don't come into class and work on the problem without the prompt of their professor. Rey'd noticed that. The girls with self esteem, the ones who ooze confidence, they aren't obedient students, that was for sure, but they had a distain of sorts for school, whereas Rey couldn't get enough of it. She'd never had a proper education on Jakku but she'd often found old scriptures and even a few still-functioning holovids that she'd poured over for hours and hours, hungry for information.  
Most of the texts she found in fighter ships stranded in the desert were either old political propaganda or the ships' manuals, but at least it taught her how ships worked, she was practically professional as far as mechanics went. She often found herself now, fingers itching to tear apart machinery, missing the feel of hot metal on her fingertips, the way that her heart would race with the spread of the warmth of a good find. _Sometimes she misses it_  
But now her hands have found bound books -not propaganda booklets- and she couldn't get enough. She'd started reading in the hospital, long books starting out as weighty doubts in her mind before becoming soon-to-be conquests. She found power in learning, as cliche as she realized now that was.  
Rey sat her pen down on the desk as she finished the problem on the board, right as their teacher strolled in, greeting the class without looking at them, eyes down between sips of caffe. Rey had noticed as the school year wound to an end that everyone, even the teaching staff, became more lax with the rules, the proper tidings of school. It gave her an excited buzz to think of her first summer season not spent in isolation, living basically in the pits of hell. Temperatures growing beyond what you'd expect imaginable to survive in. She'd heard summers of Coruscant were extremely enjoyable.  
Jess and Tenia turn back to face the front and stop talking. It's a sign for Rey to stop day dreaming and pay attention.  
She always sits in the second row back. Close enough to hear everything yet far enough back that the teacher wouldn't call on her to answer questions as often. Rey wasn't stupid, she always got the right answers. But the thought of having to answer aloud in front of the class, not knowing if she's right 100%, it made her throat tighten and her fingertips buzz. She'd prefer to stay out of the spotlight, away from attention.  
She sat next to a quiet, lanky redheaded boy who's name she never really heard, that she never really spoke to. He just kind of sat to himself, isolated from the hustle and bustle of the loud class that seemed to cause him great anxiety. He was smart, she knew that, but only because she'd gawked more than once at the top of his tests when they were handed back, getting perfect marks on damn near every single assignment he did.  
He had a book in his hand, thick and obviously old. He stared intently at the page and bit his lip just slightly in concentration.  
He read a lot. Always old books with worn spines and dog-eared pages. Rey would never say it out loud but he kind of fascinated her. He was quiet and observant, Rey was someone who really appreciated these qualities now that she was surrounded by chaos every day.  
She realized she was staring, absentminded but staring nonetheless, when she watched his lips start moving. He was answering the question from the board, book still in hand holding to the page he was on, looking at their professor as their professor and everyone else (at least in Rey's mind) looked at _her_ staring at _him_. She blushed madly and looked down determined at her paper, almost squeaking when he'd finished speaking.  
_Breathe. Breathe, Rey! For christs sake, breathe!_  
Rey inhaled slowly and turned to her right, looking to Jess for salvation only to be met with incredulous eyes and a smirk as wide as her face. Rey blushed harder as Jess mouthed a stretched out "Oooohhhh" with a small air kiss at the end, Rey hid her head by grabbing her book bag, starting to rifle through it until their professor began to talk again, telling them to pull out their workbooks and get into lab groups. They were doing a seed germination lab. Cell growth. Photosynthesis. Rey tried to focus on the lab and not Jess' wicked grin as they moved to the lab and their designated stations. Rey had started copying down the lab into her notebook when Jess and Tenia came to their station with their supplies, setting them in the middle and setting their lab books down, closed, on the table, taking their seats. Rey's breath hitched without her permission.  
"So." Jess had a blatantly playful tone, but Rey knew this was more likely going to be torture. "What was, uh... _that_ about??" She giggled at the end like it wasn't the end of Rey's life. As if she wasn't going to literally combust from embarrassment right damn there. Rey ignored her. Mumbled a _What??Nothing._ And thankfully Jess let it go. Rey's face felt hot and she guessed her cheeks looked like red hot coals straight out of the fire.  
They do the lab without bringing it back up and Rey practically sprints out of the classroom as the bell rings in her ears.

Her last period class is in the senior hallway and Rey counts down the seconds until it's over, it's a computer literacy class and Rey could not be less interested. Taking computers apart, ogling their guts and wires, that she could get into. She's focused on the task of getting to her car after last bell before Jess has the chance to grab her and make her relive the days' earlier humiliation. The odds are in her favor, all she has to do is calmly make it 100 feet down the hall to the exit doors, then sprint like hell to her car at the very back of the parking lot...The odds are slightly in her favor.  
The bell rings and everyone starts to gather their belongings. Rey begins to move for the door, having packed up prematurely, preparing for her mission. She's almost out of the class room when she hears the grumble of someone clearing their throat and-"Miss Kenobi? Can you come here a moment?" It's from the very back of the computer lab, in the teachers corner. A voice quiet but stern. The teachers corner looks almost sinister, bathed in dim light and sectioned off from the rest of the lab. The voice doesn't belong to their teacher though, but instead his student assistant. The boy is a senior, almost always silent except when giving a lesson aloud to the class. He'd been basically in charge of the course the entire semester that Rey has spent in it, their teacher was more of a blow off than most of the students themselves. She could faintly remember his name was.. _Ben_ , she thought? Maybe? She walked towards the back area where he was standing. As she grew closer she realized that he was holding a circuit board, one of the many they have in the classroom to tinker with. But this was one _she_ had fixed, corrected the circuit and added it to another, giving them an outside face and a small screen she'd found in the spare parts bin. She'd been thinking of old ships being salvaged for all their working bits and the pieces Plutt didn't have interest in Rey turned into her own personal projects. She'd torn apart and reassembled several holopads when she'd lived on Jakku, enough to have a working one for a short period of time every so often. When she did she would watch the otherwise useless stockpile of holovids she hoarded as soon as she found them, they were of no use to Plutt so they became little presents from the universe when she'd go through a ship for scrap and find any worth keeping. She used to hole up in her AT-AT when the nights on Jakku would grow cold, bone-chilling and windy, when she felt more alone than ever, and watch holovids until she fell asleep.  
Without knowing or meaning to Rey had started to assemble the circuit boards and screen into what could be a holopad. The senior boy was holding it in his hands delicately ( _and it's not like she's_ looking at them _or anything, but his hands seem impossibly large, too large to be holding her fragile creation._ )  
"This is really promising," He says it like a compliment, but he has a scowl and a furrow in his brow, "how long have you been building computers?" He asks.  
Rey almost laughs, but _his face_. She presses her lips tight, then answers, "I don't, or well. I haven't ever _really_ built one, or anything, really. I just kind of taught myself a few things. I used to...", she falters as she thinks about bringing up Jakku. She decides against it. This boy isn't a friend of hers, he's basically a complete stranger. "I'm into mechanics." She says decisively, "Computers are close enough to machinery for me." She says it with a shrug, but for some reason she feels absolutely wriggling. Like bugs are under her skin. She doesn't like it.  
"Oh." And Rey could swear his surprised look isn't actually mocking. For once, when she says she likes working with her hands and machines and wires, she doesn't get a laugh, or a, _what a strange interest for a young girl.._  
"Well it's good. You should think about joining the tech club. We don't work with large machines, or well, we haven't before. But I think you'd fit in."  
Rey _does_ laugh this time, shaking her head and chuckling. She realizes the boy is giving her a strange ass look and promptly stops laughing.  
"Sorry", she says, "I just, I've never fit in anywhere." It sounds so cliche rolling off her tongue, but the reality of it hits her in the chest, hard. Her breath hitches in her chest, "I don't know. I, uhm if you think I would be good for it, or whatever.." She trails off, suddenly way too self conscious. She remembers she needs to be booking ass to her car. She starts to motion toward the door as she says, "Sorry, I have to..beat my friend to my car.."  
She rushes out with a wave, only realizing when she gets to the exit doors that she forgot to ask the boy about details for this club, but she brushes it off, bee-lining. She tries to sneak to her vehicle as slyly as possible, she sees Jess seconds after walking out into the slight heat of the Coruscant day, gathered with a gaggle of people Rey mostly doesn't recognize over on the grassy space between the building and the concrete lot. Rey ducks behind a large group of boys, into the parking lot and behind cars until she reaches hers, quickly unlocking and stuffing her bag inside, then herself. She see's Jess in her rear view mirror as she pulls out, uselessly running after Rey's car waving her arms. Rey hits the gas.

 

[Rey was knee deep (literally) in wires. She'd wriggled her way into the comm panels of an old Imperial 500-X Shuttle, finding a practical goldmine inside the ship the moment she broke in. It had been picked apart for the most part on the outside. Everything of value in direct eye sight squirreled away already by more quick scavengers. The ships front was imploded on itself from what Rey guessed was a direct crash into the ground where it still laid. The glass of the front window was sticking out all directions haphazardly. A death trap in plain sight, like a creature in the sand waiting to devour any fool who dared to enter the cockpit of the ship. At least, those who tried to enter through the treacherous but obvious front opening. Rey was smart enough to know she could climb through the wing panels, into the belly of the beast, to get the valuable meaty insides. She'd found enough loot to make her bag heave, she'd put it down near her feet as she fiddles with a functioning panel holopad screen, trying to pry it from it's place without destroying it. She winched the side of the panel with one of her hand tools, putting light pressure on it until it popped free. Success. She grabbed a rag from its' secure tuck at the back of her belt, wiping off the screen front and back, blowing away the dust. The wires were all good still, the screen had no cracks, the original circuit board was even still intact. She wanted to keep it for herself, try and perfect her current holopad. But her gut told her strongly to keep it clean and unscathed for Plutt, a working holo screen -a nice one like this- wires intact, practically just waiting to be put into another ship.. It would earn her at least a days worth of portions. She tucked it into her brimming satchel and turned towards the cracked and obliterated window. The sun was high against the azure blue of the sky. It was about time she headed back to the trading post with her haul -a good one today. She would be walking away from Plutt with the knowledge that it wouldn't be _necessary_ for her to scavenge tomorrow. (Even though she would end up scavenging, as she always did.) Her mind got the best of her when she let her hands lay idle for any extended period of time. And there was never such a thing as having _too much_ stockpiled scrap.  
When she was finally walking back to her AT-AT, her new collection of portions inside her bag now instead of scrap, she could take a deep breath as she watched the sun go down. It was a good day. She'd surprised even Plutt when she'd hoisted her bag onto the counter of the outpost. He'd taken mostly everything, save a few cheap copper coils that Rey hadn't expected he'd want anyway. But the screen for the holopad laid still in her bag in a pocket, cradled by her precious food. She hadn't put it up for grabs with Plutt after all, the possibilities it held too much for Rey to pass up. She had two circuits back at her camp, one of them was bound to be compatible with the screen. Rey thought about how when she got back to camp, (the thought of calling it _home_ made her queasy, even if that's what it was) she'd configure one of the circuits she had laying around with the one that was still on the screen of the datapad and watch a holovid, prepare her dinner and sit outside with her food and her staff to watch the dark take over the planet. Her presence in front of her camp was usually enough to ward off any of the ruthless scavengers who weren't above stealing from other scavengers homes. Lower than scum, but they were out there. Jakku was full of people and creatures who were lower than scum. Lower than bantha spit. They frequently raided other scavengers camps, stole from satchels and bags as people gathered near the outpost to clean their scrap. They did what they needed to survive, Rey could understand that better than most people, but thieves were lower than low even to her. When she'd been a small girl it'd happen all the time, people thinking she was too young and foolish to notice her hard earned scrap disappearing behind her back. As she grew older, starting carrying her staff, fewer and fewer threatened her livelihood on a regular basis. Until she became fearsome in the sand, known throughout the small village as a small force to be reckoned with, with her staff she was near unstoppable if anyone tried to come at her. They didn't bother at this point, knowing they'd only end up with a few choice bruises and a bad attitude if they tried to accost her or tried to fight.  
After tinkering with her new holopad (it'd been much simpler than she'd expected to put together, whirring to life as soon as she tried to turn it on). Her smile had stretched her face enough to hurt just a little, skin taught from the constant sun and sat for a few aimless hours, watching the sun slowly move through the sky as a holovid played quietly on the pad in the background. Rey finished preparing her half portion and her ration bread as the sun finally started to descend, bringing them out into the sand and settling down to eat, staff at her side, gazing out into the endless desert around her just as she'd expected to. Her life was a rut, but at least she could survive it.  
She could see someone in the distance, scavenging around between the sparsely placed camps, picking up scrap pieces that had been abandoned in the sand, either not worth some ones time with Plutt or too heavy to lug around to him. The scavenger picked them all up, laying them on a large width of fabric behind him and dragging it through the sand with one corner.  
From the frail, obvious slight of his body, she guessed it was Dietrich. The boy had originally grown into a handsome young man that Rey watched closely as she grew older too. By the time he was in his sixteenth year he garnished plenty of attention from the girls with pretty faces and nice dresses, he wanted to be a pilot with the Resistance forces and never stopped talking about it. Word was that he actually went off planet a few times, to go to rally's or meetings or well-choreographed raids for the resistance, he was so dedicated. Rey suspected that was why one night the village shook with the thunderous approach of a ship- a big one- and the next morning, Dietrich's whole family was gone, their makeshift home mere cinders and scraps of metal and stone. Their whole lives decimated by the first order, the most treacherous and evil of all the Imperial Services fleets. Dietrich's ultimate stab to the heart being that he'd spent the night in question off at a resistance meeting, in the far reaches of Jakku, arriving on his speeder just as the flames of his families hut began to burn as only embers.  
Rey remembers the howl that ripped from his chest when the realization of what had befallen his family hit him. Inhuman, a cry like a giant beast being defeated. As the years went on without his family, he slowly sold off all he had remaining, trying to survive. He's denounced the resistance that day. Swearing they were the reason for his immeasurable loss, and to an extent they were- but when the old women jabbered to each other in the village, they remarked on how he'd brought it unto himself, becoming so wrapped up in fighting the Imperial services he'd ignored the threat that stood out against anyone who spoke against them, the stories of old when they'd blown up whole planets. He'd been the reason for the demise of his entire family..  
Now he was just like Rey, but worse off, a reminder that it could _always_ be worse. She finished scarfing her food as the dark set in, quieting the sandy terrain. The wind blew softly now. Jakku silent, almost serene. There were times, rare but there, where it didn't seem like her life alone in the desert was the worst fate she could have.]

 

That night, Rey had a dream about Jakku. A dream, not a nightmare. It was endlessly strange. Since moving she frequently found herself back on her home planet when she fell asleep, having nightmares. There were several that seem to repeat themselves at random.  
One where she's just a girl, so young and alone surrounded by endless sandy dunes, running for dear life only to have the sand start to slowly devour her. She sinks like a stone, screaming uselessly for help.  
In another one she sees herself, fearsome and strong with her staff, older but still just barely a teenager. Fighting off other scavengers outside her old makeshift home, dozens of them, coming at her like zombies. They're trying to steal her scrap out from under her, leave her bloody and beaten, starving and abandoned, shunned by even those she was most similar to.  
In the worst, she relives the smallest details of her original abandonment, the day her family left her in the sand like an unwanted pet. Her screams of _Don't! Please! Come back!_ ringing out, the only thing she can hear.  
But this, this was a _dream_ not a nightmare for once. She's on Jakku alright, she can tell by the way the sun is glaring down at her, by the way the air tastes.  
She knows.  
There's a large ship in front of her, an old X-Wing that's lost a few panels and sprockets and crashed without being obliterated. She was there to scrap it, and even in her dreams, Rey was stuck a scavenger..  
But it's not like any of her nightmares, where she scraps and scraps all day and doesn't leave the ship with anything for Plutt, the days she knows she will go hungry, even in her sleep.  
Instead she can see her satchel on the ground near what must be the entrance to get into the ship. There's a length of sturdy rope to climb up and down coming out of the hole left by a missing panel of metal. And it's full, brimming with scrap, decent stuff too.  
She could get used to having normal dreams.  
And then, out of absolutely no where she hears a loud, happy booming, "HEY, REY LOOK AT-"  
The voice isn't one she knows though, she's not familiar with it even in reality and she wonders how she could possibly know someone's voice in a dream when she'd never heard it in real life..  
Then she sees a head raise from the ship's panel in the distance, followed by a hand waving wildly at her.  
She can't really distinguish who's joined her in her dream from where she's at, too far to get a proper look. But then..  
Red hair. His thin arm waving wildly in the air holding a huge golden coil in hand. She's used to seeing a heavy book those hands, not scrap. Rey doesn't even know his name, doesn't know why he is here in her dream, but she starts to walk her way over to him and the ship. He's talking again when she reaches him, "..at least a few days of portions right? I figure. Plutt is a glutton for golden anything, you know?"  
Up close Rey can clearly see the boy from Bio class. She doesn't think she'd ever really _looked_ at him face to face, just glances from the side, she was more used to his profile, it amazed her that in her dream she could see him so _clearly_. His skin was pale, much too pale for him to _actually_ be from or even _on Jakku_ , and he didn't exactly look like he did when she saw him every morning in first period. His hair was longer, copper strands shining almost blonde in the sun and he had a significant amount of facial hair. Rey was sure she had only seen him look like this one time in reality, back when she'd still been intimidated by everyone at school, right after the whole student body had come back from holiday.  
She remembered wondering what he'd done over the break, thinking he must have been away from his home or possibly sick. She was so surprised that in the two weeks they'd been gone from school he'd practically grown a full head of hair and a beard where he was always clean shaven. She remembers wondering how old he was.  
Now in her dream he was beaming at her, his perfect teeth gleaming as he yelled to her.  
"Come on up here! What are you doing?!"  
She looked down, at her hands, dirty. Her staff wasn't on her belt, but she could see it safely laying by her bag. She was in her old clothes. The outfit she'd put away when she'd moved into her grandfathers house, for some reason unable to part with clothing she should've honestly wanted to never see again. For some reason she found herself happy to be wearing them in her dream.  
"Rey, what are you doing?" Her head snapped up as the boy reached out and touched her shoulder, suddenly near, but her dream self didn't recoil from the touch, she instead leaned into it, his hand cool against her skin. He wasn't just _touching_ her, his hand rested on her shoulder with weight, fingers gripping her softly, she could've sworn she felt his thumb rubbing at her collarbone, ghosting over her flesh and leaving goosebumps behind. It felt so..comforting. Normal. She looked up to meet his gaze, realizing just how _tall_ he was. His eyes were blue-green, almond shaped, and she could actually _see_ his smile in them.  
"What are you doing, Rey?" He asked her again, and the smile is even in his voice. Rey can't help but smile back at him.  
"I'm just..", she starts, but she doesn't _know_ what she's doing really. She feels bewildered by this dream, she doesn't understand, but it's not bad exactly. So she just finished with, "looking around." Then when he continued to smile but began to shake his head in amusement she says, "What've you got so far?"  
He glanced back to the satchel on the ground before replying. "Pretty good haul, we can drag it back to the speeder in just a bit, I want to strip one last coil," he moved his hand and for the first time Rey realizes that it had even still been there. "Take it to Plutt, get our portions and get back home. I found a holovid inside the cockpit that looks like it should work, we can watch it while we eat and see what it is."  
He says it so easily, like it's their normal everyday activities and she guessed that in this dream world, it might be. The way he says _home_ makes her stop thinking all together. _Their home?_  
She looked to his eyes again and did the only thing she could, she beamed back, nodding, starting to head towards the ship. The boy turns to follow her and out of nowhere she feels his hand slip into the space around hers, fingers interlocking and squeezing. Her hands are on fire and his are cool to the touch, relaxing and reassuring. He squeezed again, smile turning into a chuckle as he started to drag her back to the ship by the hand.

 

When Rey woke up she tried to get herself back to sleep, desperate to see more of the dream. By the time her alarm goes off she's frustrated. She lays in bed with the covers up over her face, trying to get back to the heat of Jakku as if it will bring back the boy and the ship and the way his hand felt against hers.


	3. Eyes Always Seeking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken so long! I'm working on a one shot that has taken on a life and personality of it's own and it controls my life..  
> Anyways, have some sap;

When the bell rings Rey is still floating around the hallway, for once not concerned with being punctual. She can't get the dream out of her head. At breakfast with her grandfather she'd spilled almost an entire cup of caffe on herself, sitting at the table and starting to day dream about the boy with red hair until her wrist accidentally went limp and the cup crashed to the ground and covered her clothing in liquid. She'd told her grandfather that she was just tired and rushed upstairs to change before running out the door to school. But now that she was inside the doors and she finally had the opportunity to _look_ at the boy with red hair with her eyes and not just her mind, she couldn't bring her legs to move her into the classroom.  
"What are you doing? You're never late.." Rey turns from the wall she's facing and sees Jess strolling toward the classroom, an eyebrow raised in confusion.  
"I'm just..nothing" Rey chooses the path of not bringing the boy with red hair up _literally outside_ of the room he was sitting in. She instead lets Jess hook arms with her and drag her softly into class, much to Rey's displeasure.  
They spend most of the class doing a lab and Rey is thankful when she looks up at the clock and it's already the last five minutes of class. She starts to pack up hastily, returning to her desk in the classroom to finish her lab report so she doesn't have to continue to accidentally glance at the boy with red hair every two seconds. The class trickles back in behind her and she stands up and walks to Jess and Tenia's desk, shuffling her feet and keeping her eyes on them as she does it. It feels like an eternity until the bell rings, but as soon as it does she bolts. Rey bee-lines out the door, students beginning to talk amongst themselves, becoming a ruckus. Rey stays her course until-  
"Hey... _Rey?_ " The voice is familiar but unfamiliar and she feels the color literally drain from her face, "It's Rey, right?"  
The boy with the red hair was striding quickly to follow her. She turns, after trying her best to normalize her face. She smiles big, but it must look as forced as it is.  
"Yeah? That's me." She replies, "what's up?" She suddenly has no idea what to do with her hands so she just puts them on the strap of her bag.  
"You dropped this." He's holding out her lab notebook. She could slap herself for bringing this upon her. She smiles again and nods, taking the book, saying a soft  
"Thanks...uh."  
"Armitage" He answers, then he presses his lips together and corrects himself, "Hux...I go by Hux"  
"Well then.." Rey stalls, "thank you. Hux"  
She turns on her heel to walk away before she embarrasses herself more but Armitage...Hux..he reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder and Rey flashes back to her dream. Her face immediately flushes red and she hates herself when she turns around because Hux leaves his hand in its spot and Rey leans into it without meaning to. He smiles at her, bright and unabashed just like her dream.  
Then Armitage drops his hand from her shoulder and opens his mouth.  
"I actually, uh. I'm supposed to ask if you've thought about Tech club?" It's obviously a question but he doesn't sound too sure of himself. "The president of the club, Ben, he's my best friend..he told me that you're really good with circuits and I told him you were in my Bio class..and we're a small club so, we always want new people to know about it..and its _actually really cool_..I," he stops himself short, "I'm rambling." He blushes crimson and Rey wants to laugh but not because it's funny..more because... _it's cute_?  
"Yeah actually" and Rey wings it, unsure what to say from the second her lips open. "I uhm, I thought about it a little. I didn't know you were in it.." And _why did she just say that??_ "I totally forgot to ask him..Ben? I forgot to ask him about when it meets and all that." She finishes with that and decides she's not going to talk again, _just make it through the conversation and get out of there, Rey._  
But Hux is ready with an answer right away, spilling out "We meet today! It's after school. Just for like an hour in the back computer lab..." Rey nods when he's finished and then realizes she probably has to speak again.  
"Cool, well uh, do I just show up?" She asks and _this is not how she meant for this conversation to go_. But the smile he beams back at her makes her breath hitch and she gives the idea of having an hour of practical free time to tinker with machinery and look at Hux some serious thought. He seems to realize that they both have a class to get to and smiles at her again. Rey can't control her breath.  
"Yeah, just, after the last bell." He says it while he's starting to back away and head to his next class and Rey just stays there smiling back at him. He turns with a small wave to her and a shyness creeping into his smile before he's gone. Rey hauls ass to her next period class and still misses the bell by two minutes, brain repeating over and over  
_"Hux...I go by Hux"_.

 

At lunch outside in the courtyard Rey sits next to Jess and spills,  
"So what do you know about Armitage Hux...?"  
She tries to make the words as casual as possible but her face is bright red when she asks and she _knows_ Jess is going to pounce on the fact the moment she opens her mouth.  
"Hux? From Bio?" And surprisingly, Jess doesn't look like a shark about to devour its' prey, she looks thoughtful. Rey nods her head yes.  
"He's a junior- third year." Jess clarifies for her, "I don't know that much about him, but I've known him forever from school. He's just kind of...there?" Jess seems to be confused as to why Rey is even asking about him, then suddenly she looks like she's been hit with a brick.  
" _Wait...Rey do you_ like _him?? I saw you two talking after class.._ "  
Rey's blushing madly before the words are even all the way out of Jess's mouth. She frantically shakes her head no almost choking on her drink.  
"No _no_ , JESS." Rey says through clenched teeth, "he's just in this club that I'm thinking about joining..tech club. That teachers aid from my computer literacy class told me about it and Hux asked today if I was coming to the meeting after school.."  
Rey hangs her head by the end of her sentence then just says towards her lap,  
"He's kind of cute. _Shut up._ "  
Jess is cackling at this point, _laughing_ at Rey's _despair_.  
"Okay, okay sorry," Jess finally stops laughing and starts taking.  
"His dad was a big important military guy, I know that..he doesn't have any siblings that I know of.. He's single." Jess looks up at her through narrowed eyes at the last part. Rey crosses her arms in defiance but her face betrays her when Jess says he's not dating anyone, head popping up before muttering,  
"I don't care. I was just curious."  
Jess just keeps laughing, rubbing Rey's back softly, saying  
_Oh come on Rey, everyone likes someone at some point. It's about time! Come on, don't be embarrassed._

Since tech club met in the same room as her last period class she stays at her computer after the bell. She'd waffled with the idea of bailing all day long. But halfway through the period while everyone was working on their classwork and Rey was busy tinkering with a broken datapad, wires popping out every which way, Ben came and sat in the empty chair beside her.  
"Hey, so A told me that he talked to you about tech club, you're coming today right?" His voice was so hopeful, half excitement and half intrigue at what she was working on.  
"A?...Oh Armitage, Hux" Rey realizes and remembers _"The president of the club, Ben, he's my best friend.."_ , then nods her head, "yeah he talked to me about it..I was going to ask my grandfather...but I'm sure he won't mind me staying for a school thing."  
"Great." Ben beams at her and bobs his head before tapping his open hand on the desk twice before standing, moving on to help a student with his hand raised.  
Now she's sitting stagnant, unsure where to go and what to do with herself as a few students trickled into the room for club. She doesn't recognize anyone really, there's a girl who's in her English class but other than that it's a sea of unfamiliar faces until Hux walks in. He heads straight for Ben, sharing a funky handshake with him before looking around to scan the room. He must find what he's been looking for when he gets to Rey, because his gaze stops on her and he throws her a smile. Something in her stomach jumps into her throat as he walks toward the back of the room, directly to her.  
"Hey, you came", Hux greets her like they're good friends, like he's actually happy to see her. "You should come sit up here, come on" he reaches for her chair to turn her away from the desk and then he's grabbing her hand _and does he just not have a sense of privacy in her dreams or otherwise?_ Hux pulls her to the front of the room where everyone else is sitting, choosing a spot that's on the outer rim of students and sitting down, motioning to her to sit. Ben starts talking at the front of the room, holding up a circuit board and talking about proper wire soldering. Rey keeps her eyes forward until he stops talking (even though about two minutes into it she starts to catch Hux glancing at her from her peripherals, just every now and then, before returning his gaze to the front), then turns in her chair to grab her satchel, catching a stray look from Hux next to her.  
"So you've just always been into mechanics?" He asks, albeit awkwardly, when Ben is finished talking and they're working on their own projects near the back of the room. Rey has to give him points for at least trying to make her feel comfortable. She feels grateful for his interest, and for the first time she feels like she can talk about herself openly. So...she does.  
"Yeah, I grew up alone..I kind of had to teach myself how to do everything. Circuits and wires were always a constant, I got really good with them." She gives him a half smile, a little bitter about sharing her past. "They're what I'm good at."  
Hux is nodding his head, like her words make sense. He surprisingly doesn't pry into what she started with and Rey is grateful for that too.  
"You're really good from what Ben said. He told me you spend most of the pointless class he TA's for building stuff out of the scrap box. That used to be my thing" he chuckles at himself then says, "he said you remind him of me. I guess it's a compliment to me though, since he said you build way more advanced stuff than I ever did.."  
Rey smiles at that, the superiority contest that used to be her life coming back to the surface,  
"I don't know.. Really I'm not good at anything else like I am with electronics." She shrugs. Hux has started taking apart a board with a tiny screen and six or seven wires sprouting from the back of the circuit board. His hands work quickly, diligently. Graceful. Rey can't stop watching them.  
She doesn't look up from his fingers dancing across the circuit board until she hears him say her name, twice. She snaps her head up to meet Huxs' eyes and he's smiling at her, chuckling a little at her gawking. She blushes, but asks him quietly,  
"What are you working on?"  
Hux smiles bright and holds the board out to show her. The screen is gone now, just wires and motherboard as he speaks.  
"I don't honestly know." He laughs, "I'm just..taking shit apart."  
Rey laughs at that, because most of the time that's her mentality, take shit apart until you can make something new.  
"So you've always been a techie too?", Rey says to try and make small talk. She feels like _actually_ talking to him..  
"Yeah, my dad- he's military, ya know? So I grew up on a base. He's always had ships that he's showed me since I was little." Hux talks like they're not total strangers, like Rey knows him. She likes it, likes the way he speaks so easily to her, words tumbling from his lips while his fingers work of their own accord.  
"So when I was a kid I just hung out in them, played in them. Started to take them apart.."he trails off with a chuckle to himself, then finishes with, "I always thought I wanted to be a pilot because of it. 'Till I realized I was much better at taking apart the navigation system than I was at the actual navigation stuff."  
"I'm a pilot." The words fall from Rey's mouth before she can stop them. She blushes, then corrects herself, "I mean, I _can_ pilot. I used to fly a speeder back on Jakku.." And then she's blushing harder, kicking herself mentally for saying too much. But Hux's' eyes are wide and his smile matches. He puts down his circuit board and turns to her.  
"You're from _Jakku??_ " his tone isn't condescending like she's used to hearing when her past life comes to light, just surprised. She doesn't want to speak again, for fear of more of the wrong things coming out, so she just nods her head and keeps her eyes on the old navigational system she's been tinkering with.  
"I've been there. Once. No wonder you're so tan." His words don't fully cover his intrigue, but he's being light about the conversation which Rey appreciates. Everyone knows that even those living with all the bells and whistles of life were living in misery on Jakku.. 

[The sun was particularly unforgiving on the day Rey didn't realize would be her last day on Jakku. Rey spent the morning scavenging and the heat of the afternoon working on her decaying home. There had been a sandstorm late the night before that had kept on until the sun was almost coming up. It had carried a sheet of thin metal in its' gusts, which had collided with one of the outside walls of the AT-AT, creating a huge gash. Rey had to fix it before the night fell again and she had to worry about more sandstorms and the vulnerability her home against other scavengers.  
By the time she sat down inside the sun outside was barely still hanging in the sky. She prepared her portions and sat watching the orange sun drift into the sand dunes. The wind picked up and sprinkled her in dirt, she immediately moved to cover her food, barely escaping the sand. The wind whipped against her, actually pushing hard enough to make her waver slightly, then disappeared as quickly as it came. Rey uncovered her food and sat back against the stomach of her AT-AT, chewing a piece off of her ration bread and setting it back on her tray as she stared out at the endlessly alone desert before her. She wondered what it would be like to eat with someone else. What sharing food was like. She thought against her own conscience _'At least I've never had to go hungry for someone else's benefit. I've never had to share my rations'_. 

_No! Please, come back!_

_She watches the sun disappear and the dark take over, thinking about eating alone..]_

Tech club flies by to Rey's dismay. She and Hux spent most of it talking instead of really _working_ on anything, both seeming to just absently tinker without focus. When Ben stands up and closes up the meeting, letting them know _The next meeting will be the same time next week. And don't forget that we're going to pick a project next time for the semester._ Hux turns to Rey and picks up her bag from where it's resting at their feet, holding it out for her when she stood up and turned to him.  
"Thanks..", it's shy again and Rey is really tired of how everything this boy does makes her a nervous wreck on the inside. He simply smiles back, pushing in his chair and grabbing his backpack.  
"Can I walk you to your car?" He sounds so proper, the way he says it. Rey almost wants to laugh at the sheer fact that she apparently happens to be in the _company of a gentleman_..  
But the answer slips from her mouth as little more than a whisper, and she couldn't make it any louder if she tried.  
"..yeah, that'd be okay." And she's nodding her head incase the words fall short, but Hux seems pleased. He smiles and starts to walk towards the front of the classroom, Rey follows behind him, keeping her head mostly down, hoping no one is staring, no one is noticing her awkwardness. Ben and Hux share their funky handshake again and Ben throws a quick glance over Hux's shoulder to Rey. Their eyes meet and he gives her a half assed crooked smile, like something is wrong. Rey couldn't begin to imagine what. Then before she can think about it more, Hux starts to walk out the door and she has to scuttle along to keep up.  
"What parking lot are you in?" He asked casually, obviously making small talk.  
"Senior lot..since I started school late." Rey says it and hopes that it doesn't spark more talk of Jakku, of her past, but Hux just nods and keeps walking alongside her. She thinks that maybe she could imagine telling him about her life before Coruscant. Maybe someday. Right now she just wants to hold conversation, hear him speak, feel the brightness of his smile against her skin when she isn't looking..  
He opens all the doors for her as they walk outside and she realizes that he's not _trying_ to be a gentleman, he just..kind of naturally is. She turns to look at him and catches his stare and now he's the one who's blushing crimson, matching his hair.  
"What?", Rey asks with a cheeky smile, laughing softly.  
" _What_ what? I didn't say anything!" His voice is joking but she could swear his voice sounds higher, like she rattled him a little. She just laughs again as they reach the exit doors, she lets him go ahead of her, opening the door and motioning for her to walk through.  
"Thank you", she says just loud enough for him to hear but only because he's come out of holding the door and instead of moving to walk beside her, he's behind her now, one hand twitching at his side nervously and the other moving to the small of her back. Leading her in a way.  
She feels a cold shudder down her spine at the touch. They talk softly to each other now, close enough to whisper and she leads him to where she's parked. When they reach her car Rey pulls out her keys, jingling them in her fingers.  
"So, I..will see you tomorrow in bio?" It's a question that she already knows the answer to but she asks it hopefully anyway. Hux smiles at that, knowing.  
"Yeah. You will." He reaches out then, and she almost flinches as it comes to rest on her shoulder, his thumb rubbing softly, just once at the skin of her neck. Warmth spreads over her cheeks and she smiles, soft, to herself. Hux retracts his hand slowly, then says a quick  
"Bye, Rey." And he's turning to walk to his car across the lot. She stands there for a split second, wanting to reach out and bring him back, before she turns and unlocks her car, sitting inside for a long moment before turning the key to start and driving herself home.  
When she parks her car in the driveway the sits for a few minutes, the radio playing something too soft to really hear but blurring out silence. She reaches to the passenger seat to grab her bag, jostling it. A small black circuit board that wasn't hers, wasn't familiar, tumbles out. Reaching to the floorboard to grab it, she realizes it's the one Hux had been tinkering with during tech club. Her brow furrows in confusion until she turns it over. Etched in metal and wires-where the old ones used to rest-was a landscape, a sun high at the top out of soldered copper, soft billowing dunes of wire creating a picture she still sees perfectly when she closes her eyes. Rey softly runs her fingers over the electronic, memorizing the pieces. The carefully placed spots of melted metal blending wires. She hadn't even realized he was making it, but he must've worked on it most of club, the intricacy obviously impressive. There's a ship etched in a mix of copper and chips, smashed down to create abstract parts of her past. Rey can't breathe of her own accord, has to tell herself to do it. She cradles the tiny masterpiece in careful fingers, thinking about the boy who made it. Hux's smile flashes in her mind. His fingers on her shoulder. Hand at the small of her back. The way he dealt with her as delicately as she did with his impromptu gift. She sits there, car stereo in the background singing some kind of hushed love song, until her grandfather pulls up next to her. He turns off his own car, then looks over at Rey still inside her's, giving her an inquisitive look.  
Rey tells him at dinner that she _joined tech club today_ , and she _even made a new friend_. 


	4. Honey Just Put Your Sweet Lips on My Lips

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken forever and ever to update! I'm working a new job and it's taking a lot more of my time than i expected!  
> But I want to say thank you to all those who give kudos and have bookmarked this fic and the other one I have up here. It means a lot to have people actually read :')

Rey is working on taking apart a bundle of wires from her cars' dashboard radio when she hears a commotion downstairs. Her grandfather. Yelling. It's early morning still, but Saturday mornings were usually lazy in the Kenobi household. Rey hadn't noticed anything different about her grandfather when she'd woken up and padded downstairs to get caffe. He'd been at the table, reading the paper while the news played quietly in the background. He'd mentioned how a friend would be coming over to see him. Rey guessed that would be what he was screaming at now. She stood from her bedside desk where she was tinkering and went to the landing just outside her door, still hidden by the stairs. Her grandfathers voice was clear now, she could hear his words,  
"They are recruiting younger and younger these days, General. Your son could very well be next!"  
"Ben is _not_ what we're talking about!"  
The voice was obviously Leia's. Rey hadn't seen or heard from the general since she'd been dropped off at her grandfathers. Leia _had plenty to worry about with her own family_ , her grandfather always said.  
"But he is a perfect example of what we're talking about!" Her grandfather spat. He was angry, but under that anger there was a definite fear. She heard Leia give a long sigh and the conversation went quiet. Rey waited a few good moments to make sure the silence would continue, then went the rest of the way down the stairs, feigning surprise when she saw Leia.  
"Oh, general, it's so good to see you!", her tone was forced but the sentiment was there. Rey had grown fond of Leia during the short time she'd been able to spend with her. Leia was strong, incredible, always _perfect_ somehow.  
"Hello, Rey. It's so nice to see you." Leia said politely giving Rey a hug.  
"It's been so long, how have you been?" Rey asks genuinely. Leia's brow furrows before she forces her face to calm.  
"I'm doing just fine, how are you liking Coruscant? And school?"  
Rey nods happily, pouring a new cup of caffe and sitting at the table with it, telling Leia _Fine, absolutely fine!_ what pray tell would have her grandfather so upset. She doesn't hear Leia saying her name until the third time she repeats herself.  
"Rey? Hello?", her grandfather waves a hand in front of her and she snaps out of it, apologizing quickly,  
"I'm so sorry Leia, I was thinking about a project from tech club..", Rey lies. But Leia's face brightens and Rey's face washes with confusion.  
"That's what I wanted to ask you about, actually." Leia says casually, "My son told me you'd joined, are you enjoying it?"  
Rey freezes mid-sip of her caffe and looks to Leia, more confusion washing over her face. Rey begins,  
"Your son? I didn't even know you..."  
"Ben. He's a senior." Leia smiles, shaking her head fondly, "He's mentioned your capabilities with machinery multiple times."  
"He talked...about _me_?"  
"Oh yes, only because I asked how you were doing. He didn't realize you were even his name-sake's granddaughter until I told him."  
Rey flushes bright red at the idea of being _observed_ that way. She pushes down the embarrassment though and continues the conversation, now intrigued.  
"So Ben, he's your son? I didn't know you had kids." She says politely, trying to dig for information. She pointedly doesn't say what she wants to, _Why is he named after my grandfather?_  
"Oh he's hardly a _kid_ anymore," Leia says it wistfully, like she longs to relive the time when her son was still small, "but he and Armitage, my word, they were going on and on about _this girl knew more than they did about ships_. You made quite an impression. _Especially_ on Armitage." Leia laughs at the end of her words and Rey blushes again.  
_Hux_ she wants to correct. She ducks her head though and takes a sip from the mug she's now cradling for dear life, the liquid burns her tongue. Rey lets it.  
"Rey," and then it's her grandfather speaking and Rey wishes she'd never come downstairs, "You never mentioned any boys. Armitage huh?"  
Rey wants to sink into the scalding cup in her hands. Disappear into the liquid.  
"He's...he's just someone from my classes.."  
"He's Ben's best friend." Leia amends for her, "really quite a bright boy. Sweet as can be, which is incredible considering his upbringing." She says it with a small shake of her head, not going into detail. But Rey's interest is perked and before she can think about asking the words spill from her lips,  
"What do you mean? His upbringing?"  
Her grandfather gives her a long eyed look, not scolding her but telling her to tread lightly. Leia looks a little panicky, like she's said too much already and she knows it, so she just responds with,  
"Well, his father.. He's a military man. He was just always very strict.", then she looks Rey in the eyes before she says, "you should ask him about it. I'm sure he'd tell you..over dinner..or after a movie.." The smirk on Leia's face makes Rey want to hide under her covers. She's bright red and she knows it, knows her embarrassment is written all over her face because she _would_ like to ask Hux about it...maybe over dinner...or after a movie...  
She sits low in her chair, trying to hide herself in any way possible as her grandfather stares at her in amusement, knowing smile on his lips. He and Leia begin to speak again, politics and hushed voices. It's a debate, friendly, but still a debate. Her grandfather seems utterly passionate about whatever the topic is, Leia seems to be equally stirred by the conversation, but keeps making offhand comments, like she's trying to get the conversation done with.  
Finally they fall silent. Rey excuses herself and runs upstairs to change her clothes. She's got some work to do on her car, she had an issue a few days ago with the radiator and she was going to spend her day taking it apart. She digs through her dresser drawers until she finds a pair of soft cloth shorts and a ratty old t-shirt before toeing on her beat up sneakers and heading back down the stairs, her car radio in her hands, wires poking out every which way. Leia and her grandfather have moved into his study, doors closed lost in conversation. Rey slips out the back door, the open garage letting in the warm spring air. Rey takes a deep breath, breathes in the heat and the smell of grass and walks to her car in the driveway.  
Her grandfather had gotten the old Saab for her as a present and a project, something _her own_ that she could tinker with. A little reminder of her past home. It ran reliably enough but Rey took every opportunity to soup it up that she got. It wasn't the shiniest or newest car in the school parking lot, a little clunky and worn. But it was like Rey. Individual. Unique among the societal sea of people more like drones than humans.  
She's got the radio almost fully reconnected when she hears another car pull up to the house, parking on the street. She hears the door open but keeps her focus on the wires in front of her instead of what she assumes is another one of her grandfathers friends. She finishes connecting, red to red, green to green, when a voice comes from the tail end of her car. She turns and climbs out of the passenger seat where she's been fiddling.  
"What are you working on?"  
And strangely enough Rey recognizes the voice. She looks up from where she's busy wiping grease and sweat off her hands with a chamois to see Ben standing with his hands in his pockets looking on curiously.  
"Uhm, just messing with the radio." She falters but says her next words, then wishing she'd phrased it differently, "Why..what are you doing here? How did you find out where I live?"  
Ben blushes red, motioning around with his hands awkwardly,  
"I'm not! Here for... I'm picking up my mom." Rey suddenly remembers that _oh yeah, Leia_  
"Oh god. I'm so sorry, that was super rude of me." Rey stands abruptly, shaking her head and her hands out to imply _no_. "Follow me. They're inside. I think..I've been out here." She laughs at the end, trying to lighten her prior crass attitude as she gets fully out of the car and begins to head toward the house, Ben following a few feet behind.

 

[Rey brought the staff in a wide swing abruptly to her front. Defensive posture. Prepare for the attack. _Always_.  
Dietrich stopped short in front of her, feet stalling where her staff stopped him on his pursuit towards the basin she'd been cleaning her scrap in. His hands went up defensively, eyes bugging out.  
" _Shit_ Rey." Dietrich took a big step backwards, away from the staff and where it was resting almost perfectly parallel with his crotch. Rey gave the staff a twitch jokingly, then set it down, scanning the bazaar quickly.  
"Where're your pack-mates?", Rey turned back to her work but continued to talk loudly enough for the boy to hear her. Usually Dietrich came along with the small hoard of boys that loved to torture Rey at all available times. But Dietrich himself had become a sort of friend a few years back, before the loss of his family, before he lost everything. Rey attributed it to him just being the oldest of them at 17, the most mature. He was kinder to Rey than the others. Even though she was _just a little kid_.

 

[[She and Dietrich had formed some sort of kinship while scavenging a few years prior. When the sand dunes were overwhelmed by forceful wind.  
Rey'd been scavenging, because the weather wasn't going to pay for her portions. Dietrich had been out in the sand doing, what Rey observed from afar, seemed to be fighting. But he had no opponent. He swung his arms around and with them swung some sort of cane, wrapped in fabric and sturdy, probably as tall as she was at barely 14, he was using it as a weapon. She thought fleetingly about _what a useless weapon??_ before she realized she'd walked straight toward him, accosting him without meaning to. He stopped his twirling and turned to look at her. The sand blowing between them pelted their faces where they were bare.  
"What are you doing out here right now?" Dietrich had to half-scream to make it audible but Rey heard the question and chuckled to herself.  
"I was going to ask you the same thing."  
Dietrich smiled at that.  
"I'm training. For combat....Or protecting my family when _The First Order_ storms our homes." He said the last part with a snarl on his face, shaking his head back and forth in disgust. Rey understood that the first order wasn't good. But she had to focus on surviving the day, not bettering the future of the entire galaxy.  
"You really believe that it'll happen?" Rey half-screamed back, walking closer to where the boy stood. Dietrich didn't even speak, just nodded his head enthusiastically. Rey smiled,  
"And you're going to protect yourself with that..."  
"Staff." He finished for her.  
"Staff." She nodded with the words, then asked. "And how exactly will your _staff_ protect you? Does it have hidden blades or something?" She chuckled again. Dietrich glared playfully.  
"Actually it's a kick-ass weapon. But it's getting too small for me." He looked at Rey with a smirk. "And hopefully soon I'll be fighting with a _light saber_."  
Rey rolled her eyes but giggled. Things of folklore..  
"In fact.." Dietrich stopped and then looked at his staff in his hands then up to Rey. "You should try using it. Kid like you, your tough but, you could always use a third hand right?"  
He tosses her the staff gently. Rey catches it with both hands, eyes trained intently on the boy in front of her. Silent thank you's being exchanged.]]

 

Dietrich stepped up behind her at the wash basin and spoke softly.  
"I'm going to the outrim of Jakku. Resistance meeting. Big stuff is going on Rey."  
Rey rolled her eyes, but played in, "Oh yeah? You guys gonna start the rebellion tonight?" Her voice dripped in sarcasm.  
Dietrich shoved her shoulder playfully with a _Ugh, No_.  
"It's gonna be a good night Rey. Just watch out. Be safe." His voice was serious now. Eyes trained on her face. She kept her eyes on the scrap in her hands, pointedly not looking up.  
"I'm always safe." She said finally, shakily. She jostled the staff that hung from her shoulder. His gift.  
"That's right." And then he's smiling at her and Rey can't help but smile back brightly. Laughing at the thought of rebellion and fighting the first order, even if Dietrich was laughing for different reasons.  
Rey goes to sleep that night without the knowledge that that afternoon in the bazaar is the last time she'll ever see Dietrich's smile.]

 

Leia and her grandfather are saying goodbye's already as Rey and Ben walk in the house.  
"We'll see, Ben." Leia says, but not to her son. To her grandfather. Rey thinks about calling him that. His name. _Ben_. Would it be weird now that she knew _Leia's Ben_.  
Rey stopped at the entrance to the living room, Ben standing a few steps behind her. He speaks, without raising his voice but somehow still booming.  
"Am I on time, mom?"  
It's strange to hear him not talking about circuits and computers. Strange to hear him as _teenager_ an equal.  
"Yes, my dear. You're perfectly on time." Leia responds sweetly but there's an undercurrent in their exchange. An electric buzz of unspoken tension. Leia turns to walk toward the front door, saying a curt goodbye to Rey as she passes her on the way out. When the door is fully shut and all goodbye's and see you laters have been said Rey looks at her grandfather. But he speaks before she can.  
"Ben is a smart boy. You two have a lot in common." He's stating them as what they are, facts. But there's something in his voice. Cautionary. "Ben has far too much of his grandfather in him." He finishes. Rey looks taken aback.  
"What does that mean? Was he..did he do bad things?" Rey asks carefully choosing her words. Her grandfather sighs, and rubs his forehead.  
"There are incidents in which we all do bad things, my dear."  
And it's the first time Rey has ever been called that by her grandfather. _By anyone._ But he says it with such kindness in his tone. Rey isn't one for huge shows of affection, but she wants to hug him as she slowly sees his eyes glass over slightly before he composes himself.  
"I'm just saying, there are bad things. Bad people. And these people are trying to do these things. As they have for years and years." Rey nods her head at the broad statement from her grandfather but takes in its' intended weight. She excuses herself after a long silence, going back to her car to tinker. She tries to work the wires with her usual finesse but can't seem to. Brain swirling with the thought that even here, in a practically perfect world, evil was just as present as it had been on Jakku.

 

Rey waits in her assigned bio desk unashamed on Monday morning, holding a weighty book in her hands open. But her eyes are darting up every five seconds to watch for Hux walking in, not reading the pages. He's never late but Rey happened to get there _way_ too early, eagerness getting the best of her. She's actually trying to take in a paragraph when she feels the chair beside her pull out and a body sits in the chair, backpack flopping onto the lab table. Rey looks up from her book slowly to take in the sight of Hux beaming at her.  
"Hey" it's all she can manage but with it she rifles around her bag and pulls out what she'd spent all of Sunday working on. She pushes the circuit toward him. It's much much smaller than the one he'd given her. But just as intricately put together. The metal sketched out the image of an old-style X-Wing. The background of the circuit is black and all the wires Rey used are hues of blue and silver where the metals have been fused. Hux is staring at it intently, one hand holding it and one hand running over the wires, both delicately as possible.  
"You made this for me?", Hux's voice is full of awe. Rey wants to bring up that he made her one twice the size but she just nods instead, smiling up at him.  
"Yeah. You wanted to be a pilot right?"  
Hux nods but doesn't say anything for a few good seconds before turning to face her. Rey's expecting him to speak but instead he does something she couldn't expect in a million years.  
Hux leans forward, so quick Rey has no idea what's happening, until his lips meet with the flushed skin of her cheek, giving her a quick peck. She instantly blushes deeper as he pulls back and beams at her. He whispers a _thanks Rey, I love it_.  
Rey composes herself and turns to start the problem written on the board, forcing her hands not to shake as she writes. All she can think about is the heat she stills feels on her cheek where Hux had placed his lips. Seared like a brand onto her skin. She also can't get over the fact that her heart is _pounding._  
Does this mean he likes her?  
Or could it have just been a friendly gesture?  
Most importantly how is she supposed to react?  
Rey can't imagine anyone thinking of her in any romantic light, but she also can't see that kind of show of affection as simply platonic. She's brought back to reality when Hux's hand is on her shoulder.  
"You coming with..?" He's got a half smile on his face and he's gesturing to the lab room behind them with his other hand. Rey giggles unsurely to herself and stands quickly, following Hux closely _but not too close._ Back to the lab and aimlessly to her usual lab station with Jess and Tenia. She looks up from her feet to meet their faces but she's met with incredulous and confused looks. Jess is practically _glaring_ at her and Rey can't even begin to imagine _why_. She passes them an equally confused face, eyes obviously saying what she doesn't have to _what the hell?_  
Tenia speaks before Jess can,  
"Uhm, Rey I think someone is uh..", she clears her throat, "looking for you." She finishes with a slight nod of her head forward. Towards the front of the lab room.  
"Rey _what the fuck_ , go sit with him! _Jesus_ " Jess scathes through clenched teeth, giving Rey a shove to the ribs. Rey follows their gazes and her eyes fall finally to Hux. He's standing at his usual lab station, notebook and pen in hand and his lab-mates are speaking to him, around him. But he's got his eyes trained on Rey, full of amusement with a question at the end. She blushes crimson and looks back to Jess and Tenia, they give her hopeful smiles, Jess gives her a tiny thumbs up, before they urge her to go join him. Rey feels like she's walking a hundred feet in the desert on Jakku while she strides over to join Hux and his lab partners. No one is _really_ staring but Rey feels like everyone in the room is watching her life like a holovid.  
Hux smiles when she gets to the table though, bringing her closer by softly grabbing her at the crook of her elbow, pulling her into his personal space and beginning to speak, low in her ear. The action happens to quickly Rey feels like she's been spun around. Suddenly she's nestled in the space between Hux and the lab table, their bodies pressed to one another almost perfectly in line. Rey intentionally shifts shyly away, just slightly as she leans down to write in her lab book. Hux doesn't restrain her to staying there though, moving about after a few minutes. When he does she has a fleeting thought about how she immediately misses the soft reassuring pressure of him behind her.  
The class flies by because she spends most of it talking to Hux about everything _but_ the lab. Before Rey knows it she has a mostly empty lab book entry and a growing _weirdness_ in her stomach. She gives Hux a desperate look, showing her open notebook's emptiness to him with a tilt of her head and a chuckle as they walk back to the classroom to grab their backpacks. Hux keeps one hand on the small of her back, not pushing her forward but leading her politely.  
"I'll let you copy mine," he laughs easily, reassuring, "come over later. My house."  
The words aren't a question exactly. Not an order either, but his voice is so hopeful it's like there's not room for doubt.  
Rey thinks quickly about after school. She has no plans. Nothing to miss. Her grandfather expects her home, but only eventually, not immediately. She has a second thought about the idea of telling him _exactly_ where she would be going, he'd have a field day after what he'd heard that prior weekend from Leia about Armitage. She's already nodding her head without knowing it though and Hux's smile is like absolute _bliss_ and she finds herself smiling back sappily. It takes another moment for her to realize they are literally _locked at the eyes_ , both have smiles too large for their faces. For a second the cliche is too much. Hux is the first to break their eye contact, saying,  
"Great, just meet me by the doors after last bell, I'll drive." He's smiling big, talking with confidence, excitement in his voice almost tangible. Then he's moved his hand from the small of her back, shuffling his book bag higher on his shoulder. Rey must be smiling back at him equally as brightly because just as the bell rings to dismiss them, Hux is leaning forward again and Rey has no idea what inside her is driving the actions until their lips meet. Chaste and soft, barely a peck but Rey's brain is swirling all over, freaking out. When Hux pulls back Rey's body accidentally takes an extra moment to respond. Meaning she's still in the same awkward position of leaning up to meet Hux's lips for a few seconds before he's grabbing her hand softly in his, intwining their fingers. Rey laughs inwardly. At herself. At the situation. _At her first real kiss_. She's still giggling when she asks Hux,  
"What are you doing?"  
He turns his head to smile at her quickly before turning to face forward again.  
"I'm walking you to class." He says with a quick glance in her direction, "So, where are we heading to?"  
Rey wants to protest. But as she's about to open her mouth to say it's not necessary, she catches the eyes of Jess and Tenia behind her. They're both wide eyed and excited, motioning with their hands to _Go, Go go Rey_. So she instead just looks forward again, telling Hux her next class softly with a shy smile. Rey doesn't consciously mean to, but she gives Hux's hand a barely-there squeeze, more to reassure herself than him. Hux squeezes back tightly for a second then just keeps their hands together. Comfortable.  
Rey has a fleeting thought about how she's never held someone's hand like this. Felt this mutual comfortability.  
She has to look down at her feet moving one in front of the other for a moment to hide the smile that's splitting her face.


End file.
